OC Media (Open Caucasus Media) is an independent English-language online news platform covering the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Caucasus regions.

Overview

OC Media is a

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

-based website founded in 2017 by journalists Mariam Nikuradze and Dominik K. Cagara and brings together journalists from throughout the Caucasus. The site covers the South Caucasus nations of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, Russia's

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

republics, and the disputed territories of

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

, and

South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

. OC Media receives funding from different organizations and institutions as well as their readers. It has received funding from organizations such as UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

, the

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...

, the European Endowment for Democracy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and the

Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation is a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate. The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London. Ant ...

. In March 2020, Georgian rights group the Human Rights Education and monitoring centre (EMC) appealed to the government after an undercover investigation by OC Media revealed poor working conditions in several textile factories in the country. They called on the Department of Labour Inspection to immediately inspect garment factories and for

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to pass legislative changes to prevent future violations of workers’ rights. In October 2020, the site was temporarily taken offline by a cyberattack. The outlet's management attributed the attack to their coverage of the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involvi ...

. OC Media was awarded the 2023 Free Media Award. In September 2023, OC Media revealed that the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, had contacted the site's institutional donors in an attempt to have their funding cut, after they refused to publish an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

he had authored. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics condemned the speaker's actions.{{Cite web , date=2023-09-12 , title=ქარტია მოუწოდებს ხელისუფლებას, შეწყვიტოს თავისუფალი და მიუკერძოებელი მედიის დევნა , trans-title=The Charter calls on the authorities to stop persecuting free and impartial media , url=https://www.qartia.ge/ka/siakhleebi/article/95690 , access-date=2024-09-04 , website= The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics , language=ka

References

External links

ebsite
European news websites